98-07 that would be.
I like most motorsport so there's an extent to which I will always enjoy F1 and every era has it's shitty aspects but I think the advent of giant heavy cars is potentially the worst thing to happen to the sport (deaths etc notwithstanding).
Yeah, there's always something to admire about F1, even if it's just the weird tech and workarounds. I'm with you on the chunky cars, though. They have just about enough room to race and, whilst they're faster than the 2007 lot, they don't look it.
The camera angles have a lot to answer for with regards to making the cars look slow. They deliberately use shots to maximise sponsor exposure as opposed to making the cars look fast.
God knows crypto.com and Aramco need all the help they can get.
Are you saying we should hire Kevin Dunn and give him license to crash zoom whatever he wants? Also, whilst I'm not a big proponent of bringing back V10s, you heard them a mile off
For some reason as well they seem to be going down the SUSTAINABILITY route. As we have jets fly over during all national anthems...
Because that's where the next step of technological innovation is. The cars have been out of step with what manucaturers want out of road cars this entire generation. They want to get back to it.Originally Posted by Gray Fox
Honda branding back on the Red Bulls from this week.
Isn’t it Red Bull Powertrains now or was that just a name-only thing?
Pretty much name only. Honda officially ended the program but handed over all the intellectual property and staff.
This might be just a one time thing so the Honda name is finally actually on the car when their engine wins the championship.
Red Bull are acting as if they've realised they can't run the engine division themselves and are exploring every avenue to get someone to do it better than they can. The Porsche deal fell through and now they're doing their best to convince Honda to re-commit to the program by putting their badge back on a winning car.
If it was that easy then more teams would have done it. Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault have decades of experience. But we're talking Helmut Marko and Christian Horner here so fuck knows.
Unless they think they can get the FIA to tone down the rules and complexity around engines for 2026 onwards by making such a song and dance about it.
Red Bull Renaults
Austin Martin Renaults.
That's the future we're heading into. I know Lance Stroll wants them as a works operation but there's no chance they build their own engines.
People always say you can't win a championship with a customer engine, but Red Bull did that before with Renault and could do it again. Alpeen are run by useless French idiots so will never do anything even with their own supply (the last French-run car to win a title was in 1969, I think - and I know it's Enstone but the engines and the ultimate money are French).
It's McLaren I wonder about. Absolutely zero chance they win again while the silver arrows are in town, unless they find some Newey-type genius to blow everyone off the grid for one season.
Red Bull were the de facto Renault works team for that whole run though, and as soon as Renault came back they got all pissy and it went to shit.
2010-11 Renault were there and came 5th both times.
2011 they were Lotus but I'll give you 2010, I bet they tried real hard that year too.
Latifi's shite credentials are well known by now, but him managing to take a wrong turning and get lost at Suzuka during free practice this morning really elevates him to the Taki Inoue / Jean-Denis Deletraz level of comedy backmarker, I feel.
Yeah I saw that.
"Something didn't feel right" you're not kidding anybody mate.
He got lost
For the 2nd time in 3 seasons, Latifi is on track to finish 21st in a 20 car championship
Pierre Gasly joining Alpine next year according to RL’s mate.
Hopefully he gets back to form with a decent car there.
French superteam, if only somebody had tried this before.
I can’t see what could possibly go wrong.
I like Gasly. Hope he does well.
Gasly / Ocon at Alpen is perhaps the most 'almost good' line up imaginable. Also a possibility of Magunssen / Hulkenberg at Haas, roll on all the jokes about balls and podiums.
Done my research, there have been 8 previous attempts at a French superteam (which I'm defining as French constructor, French engine and two French drivers). The golden age of the concept was 1981, when TWO such teams came 3rd and 4th in the championship, using no fewer than 6 French drivers between them during the season and nobody else.
Hasn't been tried since Ligier's pitiful 1994 effort - although Prost-Peugeot's comedy entries with Jean Alesi in the late 90s were pretty close. It's got to be worth another go.
Give me Erik Comas or give me death.
Gasly is official now. So De Vries to AlphaTauri has been announced.
Looking like Logan Sargeant to Williams (‘Murica!).
Gasly to Alpine is official, on a multi-year deal. It'll be interesting to see how he does outside of the Red Bull team, and how he gets on with Ocon, considering there's been some bad feeling in the past. Ocon loves to race his teammate hard so any contact or issue is sure to be heightened.
De Vries has been immediately announced as the replacement at AlphaTauri. Surely that's the shortest driver pairing an F1 team has ever had...
Of course Verstappen gets away with that incident with Norris in Q3
Put Latifi in that scenario and watch how the reaction and punishment is different.
Has Verstappen ever been penalised for anything?
Mercedes: Hamilton and Russel
Red Bull: Verstappen and Perez
Ferrari: Leclerc and Sainz
McLaren: Norris and Piastri
Alpine: Gasly and Ocon
AlphaTauri: Tsunoda and De Vries
Alfa Romeo: Bottas and Zhou
Aston Martin: Alonso and Strulovic
Williams: Albon
Haas: Magnussen
I think those are all of the confirmed drivers for next year. Tough choice for Ricciardo. Do you stay knowing you'll likely be a backmarker, or do you go off to pastures new.
I heard Hulkenbergs name popping up but he's 35 now. Why would you not put Drugovich or Sargeant in your car instead?
The rear wing touch in Interlagos.
I thought Max was sure to get a penalty for impending Norris, but looking back a few years it seems that a reprimand is the standard punishment for an incident like this. Hamilton did almost exactly the same thing to Sirotkin at Interlagos in 2018 and was reprimanded.
Haas have pretty much said they won’t go with a rookie so it’s either Mick, Hülkenberg or Italian Jesus.
Two of whom (sorry Mick) will do a much better job than a random rookie.
They should make F2 into a more meaningful second tier, some spec joke with reverse grids is not helpful really.
I think the driver academies are the problem, really. It used to be exciting to see teenagers make it to the grid. Now it's all so ordinary and there's far too many of them. You can't really focus on young talents when there's six of them in a programme all fighting for scraps.
Big aquaplaning from Sainz (mainly because no one wants to use the full wets) and we've had a red flag for a while now.
Gasly had the shock of his life...
Was under the safety car but that's not acceptable, especially as this is where it happened to Bianchi in 2014.
Get them out there doing laps behind the safety car you newbs
28 laps? Glad I slept through this.
And now the FIA are awarding full points, making Verstappen champion. That's .... not that usually works.
It is actually. Regulations state if a race is red flagged and unable to resume, points change depending on distance run. If the race is able to resume and turns into a timed race, the points are full as usual. Otherwise Singapore last week would have been 75% points as they didn't reach full race distance there.
Edit: I tell a lie, Singapore would have been full points as they went over 75% distance. Point stands though.
Last edited by thommo; 09-10-2022 at 08:36 AM.
Fair enough. But I also think 'running to time' is a bit fudged because some races they keep the clock running (like today) and others they don't (Canada 2011).
I think the 3 hour limit was brought in specifically because of that Canada race. Lasted about 4 and a half hours didn't it?
Doing a little digging - a 4 hour limit was brought in in 2012, and that was shortened to 3 hours before the 2021 season.
Apparently Verstappen was confirmed Champion. Ah well, same again the next five years unless he kills himself.
I wouldn't be so sure. The balance of power can change, car-wise.
Certainly if Red Bull have to find a new engine supplier.
Thankfully he has a championship that Sky can’t crib (much) about for the next year.
Why was it on so early? Is it a big enough race that they can just say fuck your and your European viewers.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote